Chapter 22. Look Before You Step: 'Ware Snakes

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_ CHAPTER TWENTY TWO. LOOK BEFORE YOU STEP: 'WARE SNAKES

Coffee was gathering strength every day, and the wounds in his healthy young flesh healing rapidly. So much better was he that there was no occasion to study him any longer on the question of danger in moving, so the well-fed oxen were in-spanned, and a few more treks brought the party to one of the tributaries of the Limpopo, whose main stream they hoped to reach on the following day.

The country here was much less regular, and the work for the oxen grew more difficult, but they found capital quarters, with plenty of good grass, strong thorn bush for a kraal; and as the place promised sport, and plenty of natural history specimens amongst the rocks and rifts into which the land was broken, Mr Rogers determined to rest here for a day or two.

So a kraal was formed, the cattle sent to graze; the boys mounted Shoes and Stockings, and starting to get something in the way of game, were pretty successful, bringing in a plump young bok; and as evening came on and they were resting, Dinny suddenly made his appearance with a long stout stick and a line.

"I've been looking," he said, "and there's some moighty foine water close by here, and a bit of salmon wouldn't be amiss."

"There are no salmon here, Dinny," said Dick.

"Then there are some good big fish, anyhow," said Dinny; and he went off some fifty or sixty yards to where the narrow little stream ran at the bottom of rather a steep declivity.

"Mind you don't have any of the gintlemen throwing stones at you, Dinny," shouted Dick.

"Ah, you'd better be careful," said Mr Rogers, smiling; "Those rocks look a likely place for baboons."

"Whist, schah!" exclaimed Dinny contemptuously; "as if I'd be afraid of a monkey;" and he soon disappeared from sight.

The soft coolness of the evening was creeping on, the occupants of the little camp were restfully listening to the _crop_, _crop_! of the cattle, and Mr Rogers was about to give orders for them to be driven into the kraal, when the peace of the camp was broken by a loud cry from towards the little river.

"Murther! help! masther dear. Help, or it's dead I'll be!" yelled the familiar voice of Dinny.

Guns always lay handy, and they were seized, and all ran towards where Dinny was yelling for help, a sharp look out being kept for baboons.

"I dare say they've attacked him," said Mr Rogers. "They are very vicious, and tremendously strong. Why, where is he? Dinny! Dinny!"

"Hee-ar! Help!" cried Dinny. And running in the direction of the sound, they came upon Dinny's boot-soles, and were just in time to save him from gliding into the little river, head first, the tuft of grass to which he was clinging having given way.

"An' did ye see the murthering baste?" cried Dinny, who looked white through his sunburning.

"No, I saw nothing," cried Mr Rogers.

"Ah, but he's down there in the muddy water. Shure I'd caught one great ugly fat fish like an overgrown son of an eel; there he lies where he wriggled himself," said Dinny, pointing to a fine silurus lying in a niche of the rock. "And I'd hooked another, when a great baste of a thing wid the wickedest oi ye ever see, and a smile as wide as the mouth of the Shannon, came up and looked at me. 'Oh, murther!' I says; and he stared at me, and showed me what a fine open countenance he had; and just then the big fish I'd hooked made a dash, and gave such a tug that I slipped as I lay head downwards, bechuckst thim two bits o' bushes, and I couldn't get meself back agin."

"Why, there's the fish on the line still," cried Jack, seizing the rough rod, and trying to land the captive of Dinny's hook.

"Ah, and ye'll take care, Masther Dick, for I belave it's that great baste has swallowed the fish, and ye'll be pulling him to land."

Dinny was not right; and full of excitement, Jack was trying hard to land the fish, when there was a rush and a swirl in the water, and as they caught sight of the head and jaws of a good-sized crocodile the line was snapped, and the little party stood gazing at the muddy stream.

"Shure an' that's him," said Dinny. "Did ye ever see such a baste?"

"A warning not to bathe," said Mr Rogers; and after watchfully waiting to see if the reptile would give them an opportunity for a shot, they walked back to the camp, Dinny carrying his fish, and bemoaning the loss of the other and his tackle.

"How big should you think that was, father?" said Dick.

"About twelve feet long, to judge from the size of his head," said Mr Rogers. "You must be careful, boys, and mind that the cattle are watched when they go down to drink. The crocodiles are most objectionable beasts, and I suppose the Limpopo and its tributaries swarm with them."

They seemed now to have got into quite a reptilian paradise. Low down by the river the land was swampy, hot, and steamy to a degree; and here amidst the long rank reeds, canes, and herbage the crocodiles revelled, while water-lizards of great size made their tracks along the banks. Higher up out of the ravine where the river ran, the land was rocky and full of nooks and corners, which the sun seemed literally to bake. Here came flies innumerable, buzzing and stinging viciously when their abode was invaded, and over and about the sun-parched rocks the various kinds of lizards swarmed, and preyed upon the flies and beetles.

They were very beautiful, these flies and beetles, and lizards--the former with their brilliant colours and gauzy wings, the latter in their jewelled and polished armour, often of the most brilliant metallic tints, and always glistening in the sun.

Hundreds of the brightly armoured beetles were captured, and transferred to the boxes kept for the purpose; but it was dangerous work, for poisonous snakes lurked amongst these sun-baked rocks, twisted in sleepy knots, and so like in hue to the stones amongst which they lay that a foot might at any moment be inadvertently placed upon them.

Jack had an adventure of this kind the very day after their arrival.

There had been some talk of going, as the General proposed, after one or other of the herds of antelope feeding upon a plain a couple of miles distant; but Mr Rogers said the larder was well filled, and his idea of a pleasant hunting trip was not one where mere butchery was the rule, but where a sufficiency was killed for their daily use.

"By all means, let us destroy such noxious animals as we come across," he said; "and I am keen sportsman enough to want to shoot some of the large game; but let us be naturalists, boys, and not simply slayers of all we see."

The result was that they spent that day collecting insects and small reptiles, Chicory accompanying them to carry a large open-mouthed bottle of spirits with stopper and sling, and the glass protected by a stout network of soft copper wire.

Into this spirit-bottle little vipers, scorpions, spiders, and similar creatures, were dropped, Chicory holding the stopper, and throwing back his head and grinning with delight as some wriggling little poisonous creature was popped in. In fact, Chicory was an indefatigable hunter of great things and small, taking readily to natural history pursuits; but he had his drawbacks, one of which was a belief that the little snakes and tiny lizards dropped into the spirits of wine were to make some kind of soup; and he had to be stopped just in time to prevent his well amalgamating the contents of the great flask by giving it a good shake up.

"Dere's one, Boss Dick. Dere's nother one, Boss Jack," he kept on saying, his quick restless eyes discovering the various objects long before his English companions.

They were up in one of the superheated rifts among the rocks, with the sun pouring down so powerfully that the whole party were very languid and disposed to seek the first shelter, when an incident that might have had a fatal termination came upon them like a shot.

Jack was in advance, and about to climb up to a shelf of rock in pursuit of some brilliant little lizards that were darting in and out of the crevices when Chicory shouted out,--

"Boss Jack! mind snake!"

It was too late. There was a great dust-coloured puff-adder lying in his way, with its thick clumsy body nestled in amongst the hot stones; and even as the Zulu boy's warning was uttered, Jack's boot pressed heavily upon the lower part of the dangerous reptile's body.

Sluggish and dull before, this assault brought the reptile into a state of activity that was almost wonderful, and before Jack could realise his peril the short thick viper had struck twice at his leg. Before, however, it could strike again, its head lay upon the stones, cut off by a blow from Chicory's long-bladed assegai, and the body of the dangerous beast was writhing amongst and rattling the stones.

"Chicory 'fraid he broke a bottle," said the boy, who had dropped it in his excitement.

But the flask and its natural history contents formed a very minor consideration just then.

"Are you hurt, my boy?" cried Mr Rogers quickly. "Sit down there. Here, Dick, the spirit-flask. Now then, draw up your trouser-leg."

Jack obeyed, and Mr Rogers immediately stripped down the lad's rough worsted stocking, taking out his penknife and preparing to make the tiny punctures bleed freely, and to suck the fatal poison from the wounds.

"Does it pain you much?" said Mr Rogers excitedly; and his hands trembled for a moment, but only to grow strong directly.

"No," said Jack stoically.

"Don't be afraid, my boy; be a man. Now where was it?"

"I won't be afraid," replied Jack. "I won't mind the knife, father."

"Quick! Show me. Where was the wound?" exclaimed Mr Rogers.

"I don't know. It bit at me twice," replied Jack; "somewhere below the knee."

"These creatures' teeth are like needles," said Mr Rogers. "Look, Dick; can you see? two tiny punctures together?"

"Would it bleed, father?" said Dick.

"Most likely not."

"I don't see the wound, father."

"Nor I, my boy; but my head swims, and I feel giddy. It is as if there was a mist before my eyes. Oh, my boy! my boy!"

"Snake never bite um at all," cried Chicory sturdily. "All swellum and look blue by dis time. Only bite leggum trousers."

Jack burst into a roar of laughter, and a strange reaction took place, for Chicory was undoubtedly right: the loose trouser-leg had caught the virulent little reptile's fangs, and averted the danger.

For there was no gainsaying the matter. Jack felt nothing the matter with him, when, if he had been injured, he would have been under the influence of the terribly rapid poison by then, whereas he was ready to jump up and laugh at the mistake.

He did not laugh much, however, for his father's serious looks checked him. And soon after, when they were alone, Mr Rogers said something to his son about thankfulness for his escape which brought the tears into the boy's eyes. The next minute, though, father and son joined hands, and no more was said.

It was another warning to be careful, and of the many dangers by which they were surrounded, and the boys promised to temper their daring with more discretion for the future.

They afterwards called that the reptile day, for the number of scaly creatures they saw was prodigious.

"But I want to see one of those tremendously great boa-constrictors," said Dick, "one of the monsters you read of in books."

"As big round as the mast of a man-of-war, and as long, eh?" said his father.

"Yes," said Dick.

"Then I'm afraid, my boy, that you will be disappointed, for from my own experience I think those creatures exist only in the imaginations of writers. I dare say they may grow to thirty feet long, but you may take a boa of eighteen or twenty feet as a monster, and as big as you are likely to see. That was a very large serpent you shot in the valley there."

"Oh," said Dick; "I don't call that a long one."

"This is just the sort of place to find a large one, I should say," continued Mr Rogers. "Hot, dry, stony places for basking, and dense, hot, steamy nooks down by the little river and lagoons where it would be likely to lie in wait for its prey."

But though they looked well about, they saw nothing, and the heat having now become intense, they found a clump of trees close by a trickling streamlet that ran along from the rocks to the river, and sat down to rest and eat their lunch.

They felt too drowsy and tired with their morning's walking to care to do much in the afternoon, and they were quietly looking over their captures after shifting their places twice to get out of the sun as the shadow swept on, when Dick suddenly caught his father's arm, and pointed towards the rocks.

"What's that shining over there?" he said quickly.

Chicory had been asleep the moment before, but Dick's movement and question roused him on the instant, and he glanced in the direction indicated.

"Big snake," he said decisively. "Chicory go and kill um."

The boy ran towards the rocks, and, picking up their guns, the rest followed--to see that it was a large serpent from whose scales the sun had gleamed. They could not even guess at its length it was so knotted up in folds; but its body was nearly as big round as that of Chicory, who seemed in nowise afraid of the great reptile, but picked up a mass of rock larger than his head, balanced it on one hand, and advanced towards the sleeping serpent, which had chosen one of the hottest portions of the rock for its siesta.

"_Yap_! _yap_! _yap_!" shouted Chicory; and the creature moved slowly, its whole body seeming to be in motion.

This was not enough for Chicory, who drew his kiri out of his waistband, and threw it heavily at the reptile.

This seemed to rouse it into action, and after a more rapid gliding of one coil over the other, the creature's evil-looking head rose up, hissing menacingly at its disturber, who raised the piece of rock with both hands above his head, and dashed it down upon the serpent's crest, crushing it to the ground, after which the boy nimbly leaped away, to avoid the writhing of its body and the fierce whipping of the creature's tail.

"Well done, Chicory, my brave boy," cried Mr Rogers, patting the Zulu lad upon the shoulder.

"Yes, Chicory very brave boy," said the lad, smiling complacently, and quite innocent of his words sounding conceited. "Chicory kill all big snake for boss. Boss boys very kind to Coffee, and father love 'em."

This was a long speech for Chicory, who nodded and smiled, and ended by waiting his opportunity, and then seizing the boa's tail and running away with it to stretch the creature out. But it was too heavy, and its writhings continued even after the boys had fired a charge of small shot at close quarters through the reptile's head.

They wanted to measure it, but that was impossible from its writhings. Mr Rogers, however, made an approximate calculation, and then said, quietly,--

"I should say it was as near as can be nineteen feet long, and unusually large in girth."

"Oh, father," cried Jack; "it must be thirty-nine feet long."

"Ah, Jack, my boy," replied his father, laughing, "that's old travellers' measurement--and they always allowed six feet to the yard-- that is, twenty-four inches to the foot; and that's why ourang-outangs, and whales, and serpents were always so large."

But they had not yet arrived at the end of their reptile adventures.

They waited for some time to see if the boa would cease its writhings; but the muscular contractions still continuing, and the dark tortoiseshell-like markings of brown and yellow and black glistening in the sun quite two hours after the creature might reasonably have been said to be killed, they gave it up and went further afield.

"Suppose we leave this series of red-hot rocks, boys, and go down towards the water. From the appearance of the country over yonder I fancy that the stream widens out into a lake."

"How do you know, father?" asked Dick.

"From the character of the trees and other growth. Don't you see how much more leafy and luxuriant it looks. Keep your eyes well opened and your pieces ready. I dare say we may meet with a rare bird or two, perhaps some kind of water-buck--ready for the camp to-morrow!"

As Mr Rogers had predicted, a couple of miles walking brought them to what in parts was quite a marsh full of canes and reeds; but every here and there were beautiful pools of breeze-rippled water, spread with lovely lilies and other water-plants, while the edges were fringed with willow-like wands and waving sedges.

So beautiful was the scene where the little river widened, and wound through the low ground, that as they wandered about amongst the firmer ground they forbore to shoot, but paused from time to time to watch the lovely plumage of the various ducks and cranes that made the lagoons their home.

Not a shot then had been fired, and as they wandered in and out they found plenty to take their attention. Every here and there Chicory found for them some nest in amongst the reeds--the nursery of duck or crane. But the most interesting thing that they saw in the shape of nests was that of a kind of sociable grossbeak, a flock of which had built a town in a large tree, quite a hundred nests being together in common; while in another tree, whose branches drooped over the water, there were suspended dozens of a curiously woven bottle-shaped nest, with its entrance below, to keep the young birds from the attack of snakes.

"What's that noise?" said Jack, suddenly, as he was on about a quarter of a mile ahead with his brother, Mr Rogers being busily transferring some water-beetles to Chicory's spirit-bottle, which escaped breaking after all from the toughness of the wire.

"I don't know," replied Dick. "It sounds like some animal. And there's a scuffling noise as well.

"It's just like a cow moaning, a very long way off. I wonder what it is?"

"I don't think it's a long way off. It seems to me to be pretty close."

They moved about among the reeds and bushes, but could see nothing.

"I know what it is," said Jack, laughing. "It's some kind of big frog or toad: they live in such marshy places as this, and they croak and make noises that seem to be ever so far-off, when they are close by."

"Oh! Look, Jack! Oh, poor thing!" cried his brother.

"Where? Where?"

"Over yonder, across the water."

Jack caught sight of the objects that had taken his brother's attention, and for a few moments the boys seemed passive spectators of the horrible scene.

Across the lagoon, and some fifty yards away, a beautiful antelope, with gracefully curved spiral horns, had apparently come out of the bushes to drink, at a point of land running a little way into the lake, when it had been seized by a hideous-looking crocodile. The monster's teeth-armed jaws had closed upon the unfortunate antelope's muzzle, and a furious struggle was going on, during which, as it uttered its piteous feeble lowing noise, something between the cry of a calf and a sheep, the crocodile, whose tail was in the water on the side of the point farthest from where the spectators stood, was striving to drag its prey into the lagoon.

The antelope made a brave struggle, but the tremendous grip of the reptile and its enormous weight, rendered the efforts of the poor beast vain: and as the boys gazed across, they saw the poor brute dragged down upon its knees and chest, and the crocodile shuffling slowly back into the water, an inch at a time.

"Oh, the poor, poor beast!" cried Dick piteously. "Oh, Jack, how dreadful!"

"Poor old crocodile!" said Jack coolly, for he had now recovered himself. "If he's going to eat all that buck for his dinner he'll suffer from indigestion. I say, Dick, let's give him a couple of pills."

As he spoke, Jack sank upon one knee in the reeds so as to rest his rifle well, and catching at his brother's idea, Dick followed suit.

"Take a good, steady aim, Dick, right behind his eye, so as not to hit the antelope: and when I say fire, pull trigger as softly as you can. Take it coolly. Ready?"

"Yes."

"Fire!"

It was none too soon, for the antelope was being dragged along, growing more helpless and its struggles more faint moment by moment, while the body of the crocodile was disappearing backwards down the slope of the point of land.

But that loathsome-looking head was still visible, dragging the helpless, striving antelope, whose piteous rolling eyes could be plainly seen by the boys.

The next instant, though, they had concentrated their gaze on the gleaming orb of the crocodile, thrown all their power of nerve into that aim, and, so as not to disturb their rifle-sights by the slightest movement, softly drew trigger.

The reports of the rifles were almost simultaneous, and for a few moments the boys could see nothing for smoke: but as the tiny cloud of vapour lifted, they looked eagerly across.

There was nothing to be seen. _

Read next: Chapter 23. An Interference With Washing, And The Result

Read previous: Chapter 21. A Lesson In Ostrich Hunting

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